Spiral/Acid wrapping of rods

[Budgie Burgess]

Just been watching a fishing programme on telly.They were fishing for Tarpon.

Point is they were using Spiral wrapped (some times called Acid wrapped) multiplier rods.
Ive seen this on a couple of programmes now (Rex Hunts mate Bushy often uses a boat rod with this ringing style)and although I understand the principle behind it I wondered what others veiws were or if and anyone had any first hand experience of it?

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)]

I am not quite sure what you mean Budgie.

I once saw a 7 foot boat rod ringed by gradually turning the guides in a clockwise direction along the blank. The first one was on top of the rod in relation to the reel. The tip ring was downwards.

It was done as an experiment but I never knew if it caught on.

 

[Sean Meeghan]

I assume that this was done to try to control the twisting action when fishing a rod with the 'rings up'. Am I right in this? I've also seen it on some of the fishing programmes, normally when fishing for big fish.

Not sure it would catch on very easily as it looks a bit strange and we anglers are a conservative lot!

 

[Bryan Baron 2]

Seen this myself. Can't see how it improves the rod though. Would b very hard to follow the spine of the rod which would make the blank twist.

 

[Budgie Burgess]

I understand the idea behind it and with the addition of a cranked butt should imagine it works well.As boat fishing is really the only time that the forces on a multiplier outfit will be higher whilst playing a fish than casting its the only application I can see it being used for.

I have been using cranked butts for my lure rods for years but have yet to give this a go.

Bryan,with modern cloths the spine doesnt often "spiral" it runs the entire length of the rod on the same side unlike the glass matting used in the early 70's.

 

[Bryan Baron 2]

That's how i understand it. Which way would you have it. i was always led to believe for fixed spool you had the eyes on the opposite side and for multipliers you had them on the same side. I would think that you would keep the spine on the top.

I still can not see how this way of ringing the rod would be of benefit.

 

[Budgie Burgess]

Basically Bryan the side the spine is on is the "stiff" side and the opposite the "soft" side. As a tubular blank will always try to bend in the direction of the least resistance i.e. towards the "soft" side rod makers use this to prevent "torque" i.e. the blank twisting. The decision on whether the rings are placed on the soft side or the stiff side of a blank is basically decided by the job that the rod is to be used for which will dictate if the maximum forces it will be subjected to are from casting or playing. The placing of the reel type (i.e. fixed spool or multiplier) to be used with the rod will also influence this as I will explain later.

For example a high powered surf rod to be used with a multiplier will have both the reel and rings mounted on the soft side. This is so when the powerful cast is made the rod blank will be compressed in its "natural" direction. This will prevent the blank trying to twist and make for both a much smoother feel to the cast and prevent any damage to the ring whippings or indeed the blank composition itself.

A similar rod used with a fixed spool reel (presuming the same casting style is used) would also have the reel and rings mounted on the stiff side! but remember as the fixed spool is used underneath the rod as opposed to the multiplier that is used on top the rod will still be compressing in its natural direction i.e. towards the soft side on the cast.

Just to confuse things a bit more if the rod is designed to be used with the "Back casting/Yarmouth" style the rings and reel will be mounted in the exact opposite way! Think about this casting style and it becomes obvious why and the rod is still being compressed in that all important natural (to the soft side) direction.

This is the way with such high performance casting rods as the pressure exerted on them during casting is far higher than any that will be exerted whilst playing a fish.

Some manufacturers of long distance carp rods have also adopted this style of ringing (or wrapping a rod as its commonly known) a good example being Bruce&Walker's "Green Dragon" carp rod of the mid 80's.

For most other rods the maximum force they come under is whilst playing a fish (or arguably it is better to have the "natural bend direction??s advantages used for playing?)A good example is most of our specimen rods and the ultimate example boat fishing rods.

 

[Budgie Burgess]

With a boat rod the only force it comes under is from playing fish as no casting is involved! It is therefore obvious to ring the rod so that the natural bend occurs when the rod is bent by putting pressure on a fish however as this would mean having the rings on the soft side thereby having them underneath the rod a problem occurs when using a multiplier (which as we know is fished on top of a rod!) traditionally we have always got around this logically by mounting both rings and reel on the stiff side of the blank, fishing with the reel in the standard "on top" position then still enables the rod to bend in the natural direction. The main draw back from this is that the rings and reel will still be trying to turn over under the pressure (although the blank its self wont be twisting).

Spiral/acid wrapping basically try?s to avoid this. It does this by having the bulk of the rings from the tip ring on the soft side of the blank. Trouble of course is that the reel (multiplier) has to be used on top of the rod and will therefore be on the opposite side to the rings! To get around this the first couple of rings from the butt ring are whipped on in "spiralling" positions to "take" the line from above to below the rod.

Christ I hope you can get all that as its certainly harder to explain in words than it is with a couple of outfits in your hand!

It?s not that new but hasn?t really caught on much in this country. The situations it would be most suitable for would be sea boat rods but there are some more specialist freshwater situations where multiplier reels are used that it might be handy for.

 

[Bryan Baron 2]

Totally undestand Budgie. Thanks for taking time to explain. It had always baffeled me when i had seen it on telly. The way i had understood the spines is from the urf casting perspective.

The backcast as always fascinated me. Chucking a 5oz lead over your shoulder to a imanginary target your not looking in the direction of scares the crap out of me.

 

[Budgie Burgess]

Any time Bryan glad I was able to put it into words!

The Backcast is a very much underated technique.Not only is it a lot easier to learn than the Pendulumn (due to its much slower timing) but also much better when you need to put out oversize leads 8oz+ in bad conditions.Once again down to the much slower casting style.